Tiffany Has Plans for a 7,500-Carat Kunzite
In late January, Victoria Wirth Reynolds of Tiffany & Company was getting ready to leave Bangkok for her next stop on a business trip through Asia when she scheduled a last-minute meeting with a gem dealer. And he showed her something that she couldn't resist: a massive piece of kunzite, the semiprecious stone named for George Kunz, who in 1879 had become Tiffany's first gemologist.
Ms. Reynolds, the house's chief gemologist and vice president of high jewelry diamond and gemstone acquisition, quickly called her boss about a purchase. 'We decided in a bit more than a nanosecond,' said Anthony Ledru, Tiffany's president and chief executive. 'It was 10 seconds.'
'We thought this was such a Tiffany story,' he added. 'That's why it took zero time.'
He and Ms. Reynolds recently described the conversation (although not the price or the dealer's name) as they sat in a private salon on an upper floor of Tiffany's Fifth Avenue flagship. Beside them was the stone, which totals a bit more than 7,500 carats and is about the size of a trade paperback. It had been mined in Mozambique about 25 years ago, they said.
It is to be cut, once all the pieces are ordered, and made into 10 Bird on a Rock brooches, Jean Schlumberger's 1965 design for Tiffany that has since become one of its hallmarks. 'To be able to take our clients on this journey to see this and then to cut the gemstones — it was just too tempting not to do,' Ms. Reynolds said.
Prices for the brooches will begin at about $300,000, she said. Clients will be able to choose among five shapes; each finished gem, which serves as the bird's glamorous perch, will be about 45 carats, or about the size of a large walnut. (Several brooches have already been ordered.) And, for the clients who want flexibility, a brooch may be made to convert into a pendant.
As for the most irregular section of the kunzite gem — which looks a bit like an iceberg and represents about one-third of the total stone — it is to become a decorative tabletop piece in 2027.
'We're going to leave it rough — we're not going to cut it,' Ms. Reynolds said. 'We're really going to have fun with it.'
The brand recently began presenting the brooch proposal to potential clients in New York City and plans to have the finished pieces ready by late December.
Mr. Ledru said that acquiring noteworthy gems had been one of his priorities since he began running the brand in 2021. His plan, he explained, was 'to reinvest heavily in exceptional stones — not good stones, not very good stones, but exceptional stones — and we've done it.'
LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, which acquired Tiffany in January 2021, does not disclose the annual revenue of its individual brands. But Tiffany said its sales had more than quintupled in the period between LVMH's acquisition and December 2024.
Coming up with myriad iterations of the Bird on a Rock motif certainly seems to be part of the brand's recent plans, too.
While an animated version appeared in a promotional video and a large bird illuminated with holiday lights perched on the Fifth Avenue building late last year, there also have been Bird on a Rock watches and a selection of Bird on a Pearl high jewelry pieces. Over the last few months alone, celebrities such as Demi Moore, Naomi Watts and Kieran Culkin have worn pieces that feature the design at red carpet events.
While many jewelry houses rely on their archives for inspiration, experts say the tactic can be risky.
'It's always a delicate balance,' said Luca Solca, a senior luxury analyst at the research firm Bernstein. 'You need to have a good cocktail of tradition and innovation in this industry in order to thrive, because if you rely too much on the past then you become a museum artifact rather than a luxury brand.'
But if the combination is right, there is a lot to gain. As Mr. Solca put it, 'If you are respectful of your past and bring it back in a modern and up-to-date way, that is probably one of most effective ways you can have to building the equity of the brand.'
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